Harlan County USA

[90038jhon]

Best labor doc ever. Top ten documentary of all time.

[popZoro]

Why is my videos in the suggestions?

[lotusgdess]

Those people are treated like serfs. Feudalism was supposed to have ended 300 years ago. RISE UP. RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE!!

[BobDylanFan1966]

where the sun rises at 10 am and sets at 3pm

[BLUEMOONGRASS]

new song at BLUEMOONGRASS about the fine folks of HARLAN COUNTY and the coal mines..add to your favorites and check it out...HILLS OF KENTUCKY...a song to sing around the campfires.

[jfs316]

My great grandfather, my uncles, my father and cousins still work in these condition. God bless Dole Smith who passed away inside the mines. The Smith family has been working in the mines since they opened. Being 6 "2 inches tall 250 lbs. Just a little to big to fit in the 4 by 4 tunnel given to work in. Bless Curtis Smith for doing what he had to so to make a better life for his childeren and his grandchilderen. I love my heritage I share with the Hensley's family my grandmother Jenny Hensley.

[beesusie]

I think the power structure in the USA has not much changed. But we cannot stop trying to make things better. Perhaps progress will be "3 steps forward, 2 3/4 steps back" but it is still progress no matter how tiny.

[12ilovesky]

Applying for a 4 year documentary film-making program next year.. You have to write an essay on which film impacted you most and why. I'm choosing this!

[mgh4]

@SomeWhereInTheSouth

you have your head stuck so far up your rectorial outlet your lungs are full of crap. instead of pneumoconiosis you have fecalconiosis

[SomeWhereInTheSouth]

LOL, they bitch and whine all day about how they suffer and die from black lung disease but they smoke enough cigarettes to kill a god damn horse.

[SomeWhereInTheSouth]

Housing with no water or indoor plumbing? This inbred ratshit wouldn't know what to do with running water if they had it.

Give them a bathtub and they'll use it to make moonshine and crystal meth.

So what if their teeth fall out and they smell like unwashed assholes. As long as they can cheat those government men with their fancy college degrees they've won something.

[Zepman1984]

@SomeWhereInTheSouth Ah, yes, because judging by your attitude and words you are a truly sophisticated individual (I would say human being, but I don't think that would be very fitting).

So let me tell you something, you little suburbanite prick, sophistication and intelligence doesn't come with region or occupation. My grandfather worked as an electrician in the mines, and I can guarantee he had more brains and knowledge than your little globalized, Hollywood-warped, generic ass ever could.

[gravelhead65]

Harlan is where my parents were born and raised, myself and two older brothers were born and lived there also. My Great Grandfather owned and operated a coal mine there until his business partner shot and killed my Grandfather in Cold Blood

[levisnteeshirt]

but don't get me wrong ,,, without the union ,, it would be bad ,,, but the union needs to stay good ,, all i'm saying

[levisnteeshirt]

i live in Wv ,,, the UMWA went over board at times. My dad was a production foreman at one mine ,,,, one worker hit his head on a 2x4 ,,,, the men struck after , saying a foreman they didn't like , hit him in the head with a 2x4 , so if they didn't fire that foreman , they were going to strike until they did ,,,,, the union needs to police themselves better

[MrJdvance]

@levisnteeshirt yeah unfortunately the unions aren't perfect and sometimes end up protecting workers that shouldn't be protected. but any union is better than no union

[39tommyboy]

the rail road i worked for was like this. i finally left with a guilt to live with for the rest of my life.

[TruBlueRepublicanSue]

The good people are the backbone of America! God damn the companies that kill them for profit!

[SomeWhereInTheSouth]

@TruBlueRepublicanSue "the backbone of America?" More like the asshole of america.

Let me tell you what the real "backbone" of any country is, you backwoods hick. People who are sophisticated.

You'd probably say, "without those miners, we wouldn't have coal! Without coal, we wouldn't have steel! Without steel, we wouldn't have Machinery!"

That's only because your mind is too small to see the bigger picture: Without brains, we wouldn't have put it all together.

Inbred country ratshit!

[ricknelms]

@SomeWhereInTheSouth then why don't you republicans go down in the mine sue?

[moonshinerunner1]

@SomeWhereInTheSouth Hey you ignorant prick, without coal the nation would have frozen to death in the 30's when the really violent strikes took place. My grandmother is from Pineville, she served as a nurse in California during the war and became liaison to the governor of Kentucky. She has accomplished more in her 89 years of existence than you can even imagine, and she is ten times more sophisticated than you can ever hope to be.

[ama00010]

thx 4 posting. I wish the actual movie was on here.

[mrcejl]

Yes for that last comment

[cmgoskate]

MRS WIXTEDS CLASS!!!

[CLEOPATRAROSE1]

I'm so so sorry about what happend to these wonderful hard working Men, Women and children. How dare this DUKE POWER GET AWAY WITH IT . ACTION NEEDS TO BE TAKING AGAINST THEM ASAP.

I AM FROM NORTH CAROLINA, BUT LIVE IN CALIFORNIA, I JUST NOW SAW THE SHOW ON T.V. LAST NIGHT FOR THE FIRST TIME AND I HAD NO IDEA , AND I AM SO GLAD THIS AIRED SO WE NOW WHAT HAPPEND TO THESE PEOPLE FIGHT BACK FIGHT BACK MY GOD FIGHT BACK

[slinginguitarman]

im a member of the united brotherhood of electrical workers local 84,i work in a power plant,im union to the bone, that being said i don't feel like im getting my money's worth from my union reps,we get more and more put on us to do at work but the money and benifits are not keeping up,the company i work for makes BILLIONS OF DOLLARS ever year,top dogs get hundreds of thousands and in a few cases millions of dollars,JUST IN BONUS,but at contract time they some poor mouthing s.o.b's

[MOMXXXXX]

These miners risked everything every day so the rest of the US could have power.

the companies treated them like slaves. The UMW was the only hope for these true Americans.

They truly knew the meaning of sacrifice. I salute all of the miners who still risk their lives everyday for the rest of the country.

The fat cat coal companies still rule the mines, however, the working conditions have improved quite a bit.

[oldtwins]

Very interesting but I'd like to see the whole thing free?

[radialmonster]

@oldtwins It's on hulu until Dec 30 for free

[mackannyblom]

This is a fantastic movie, one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. Amazing in every way -informative, interesting, beautiful, scary.

[pegleg747]

Back when unions were needed, life lines, and protection for workers.

Now they are just as corrupt as gov't.

Great docu!!

[bunkieb00]

what is truly admirable was the tenacity and courage of these people...the corporate giants thought that these people would take being treated like somewhere in the third world forever...well, they showed them differently..

[LibPornQuig]

It's a powerful movie. This should be required viewing for Tea Baggers.

[johnyzero2000]

They ought to make an HBO movie out of this like they did with Grey Gardens.

[Deleanredtiger]

@johnyzero2000

lol Stacy Keach as Basil Collins

William Daniels as Carl Horn

and Susan Sarandon as Lois Scott

[cardinalsboi22]

I just recently watched this video a few days ago. People need to see this. They need to see it because this is now 2010, this film was made in 1974, and NOTHING has changed in the Appalachian coal fields. I live in WV and grew up in the coal fields. My father, along with many on both sides of my family, was a miner. Click my screen name to go to my channel to see what we deal with today.

[KissMeKatie73]

My great grandfather is in this video somewhere, i think. but, ive never seen him. i cant find information on him anywhere.

[Madisonmofo]

In light of the tragic events in West Virginia this film couldn't be more timely. Amazing!

[messagefrombilly]

LOL! An amusing display of angry white trash.

If you hate working for the coal industry why don't you stop buttfucking your cousins and move to a big city. We have hot showers, high paying jobs, and toilets that actually flush your shit away! (WOW, imagine that!) Of course, there's just one catch: you'll have to learn how to read and develop a set of skills that can be marketed, something that goes beyond swinging a pick all day.

[down4ce]

@messagefrombilly ................Down4ce>*Smack­s Palm to forehead*

[BeAsTm0aD]

@messagefrombilly someone has to do this line of work, and if they're going to do it, they deserve better treatment

[MarydoBruno]

I remember seeing this documentary in 76 when I lived in London... never forgotten those courageous people.

[bmfox123]

Union all the way! Live better work Union!

[kkkaaakkkaaa999888]

I live in Indiana, but I ain't never gonna forget where my family came from.

[skeptic2everything]

i want to see this doc.

BTW does anyone know the song at the beginning? it sounds like pete seeger but i might be wrong

[l2p]

Opening song is called "Dark as a Dungeon." I know Merle Travis wrote it.

[xpat73]

Who was Basil Collins and what happened to him?

[americansmark]

Both my Grandpa and dad were in the movie. I know my dad was company (needed the money), and I think my Grandpa was too.

[xbacon24]

WOW... i wanna see it.

[ozzirt]

Land of the free,.. huh???

The Usa has some of the most backward labour laws in the world, laws that would not be out of place in China or many other third world countries.

Yet Americans are always telling others of their freedoms, ...

You are only free to do, what the government and big industry wants you to do. If you resist, the government will send in the troops to shoot and beat their own citizens. You are NOT free, and movies like this will show you that fact.

[Petie1]

Sadly true!

[ozzirt]

I have many relatives in Harlan and neighbouring SE Kentucky counties. One was the first man hung in Wise Co. VA. They led lives of great misery and sorrow, many died trying to supplement their incomes making a little shine, fighting both competitors and the revenue men.

[Petie1]

I have many there also!...Both my Mother and Fathers side.I feel you or understand you and a it's a damn shame no one acknowledges these people for their sufferings and what the coal from those parts did to give them electric to sit on here and say stuff again't them and gripe about the pollution it created as they enjoy traveling in their automobile's coal burnt the steel with!Take care friend!

[Petie1]

Said well!

[Petie1]

I agree with everything you've said friend!...Shine could have burned our cars cleaner,but they did not want everyone to produce liquor or a source or petroleum that they could not figure out who owed taxes on!

[cashberg]

@ozzirt 100% correct. This country isn't free. People who believe that are fooling themselves. You're free to buy your choice of available consumer goods, and that's it.

[thegreatestbak]

i am really enjoying this particular version of "Dark As A Dungeon"---does anyone know where i can find this version> The other versions i have found by merle are too soft

[grummeper]

Thanks for this upload!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[edebbws07]

I saw this on IFC, and being I leave near Harlan, this strikes home, I asked my mother what she remembers about it. She said it was awful and so violent. But people stood for what they believed in, they believed in it so much some give their lives for it.

[ryanwellsSS2009]

What has come to us a people to not fight

companies to not treat workers fairly? Republicans have always hated Unions and there greed it looks like has won. No one fights the war, no one fights all this company greed, no one fights for heath care, Democrat ot Republican they do not care about us. And sad part no one else fights for causes anymore. Sad day for America

[zenbrenzz]

ryanwells..agreed..The corporations have busted up unions across America. I live in NC and the people here have been brainwashed to believe that Union means Mafia or communism...of course, that's what the capitalists want.

I hear the crap abt that's why the auto ind is in such trouble, workers making a livable wage and having benefits..pure crap..When the CEO is making more than 1000 workers?

[Petie1]

Well said!

[dixieken]

This is my 2nd favourite film, only behind To Kill a Mockingbird. I have owned this several times on vhs, and am on my 5th dvd copy(I keep loaning mine to friends, who fall in love with it, so I tell them to keep it).

My family grew up hard, or so I thought until I saw this film. I was 2yrs old when the events in this film occurred, but 36yrs later, I think the same issues of corporate greed against the common worker still exist. Should be required viewing for all!!

Thanks For posting!!

[SuperKillgirl]

AWESOME, BEAUTIFUL, UNFORGETTABLE movie! I bought the DVD nearly two years ago, and this movie ranks very high among my all-time favorites! I wish more people felt as passionately. I showed this to my husband whenever I bought it and he sat mesmerized as he was watching it. Thanks for posting this.

[kpdawes]

my friends and i alway talk about how sad we feel for friends who buy $55 for oxycontin 80mg everyday which we really can't afford paying $55 everyday and now, i heard $120 in ky.. oh my!!!!! oxycontin should not be existed anymore because it affects our economic since junkies buy oxycontins instead of foods, items, etc etc etc

[kpdawes]

damn, harlan is always messy town.. bloody harlan, miners on strike, and then oxycontin town.. this town is fucked up since it's only 30,000 populations and it became kinda famous to everyone knowing that it's a fucked up place.. i only live 130 miles away from harlan and i heard $120 for 80mg of oxycontin there but $55 for 80mg of oxycontin here.. damn kentuckians!!

[TBonePickensetc]

You people sound like a bad Pete Seeger song from 1940. Why not put on your thinking cap and become social activists. Our Price System is about to collapse in a widescale way. A non monetary system solves the problem... and you miners are crying to go into the mines and get paid a 'decent' wage.... you love being class slaves to the political price system. Google Technocracy and get active. Real alternative does not involve digging coal out of the ground. Sun power is different. Clean

[LeanaHM76]

I have this DVD. It's a great documentary. I watch it all the time and it still brings tears to my eyes.

[lilsteller]

The county and whole coal region has changed alot since then. Theres still poverty there just not deep poverty. Harlan County's per capita income is $11,500 which is still 3 times less then Americas $45,000 a yr.

I think the reason most this region got out of poverty has been the fake real estate, and banking economic boom of the last 25 years. Now that has come to an end most people in this region won't be able to buy homes, cars off of loans any more.

[bgriffey69]

If coal is no longer needed then turn off your lights and stop using it. It want be long until you will want our coal.

[TBonePickensetc]

The Price System is the problem. Coal is some thing now that is a non issue and no one should be mining it.

Global warming is caused by carbon burning and that means climate change.

For an alternative system of culture under science google Technocracy movement.

[GRANG606]

oh great idea there buddy, me and thousands of my coworkers who work in the mines should quit because its a non issue and should be left alone. if obama wasnt enough!!! now the treehuggers are putting us down Long Live 40831

[TBonePickensetc]

You ought to maybe get a life outside the 20th century throwback of burning coal. Yes you should quit... it is a non issue. Get into renewables.

Your relationship with this issue is completely backwards. A different economic system gets rid of the Price System. Use your brain... stop being a wage slave and open your eyes. Google Technocracy movement

[pwnzor3000]

I am 15 and I was born in Harlan, luckily my family moved to Claiborne County, Tennessee.

[BlueMonkey990]

Ohhh ya, man my dad can tell yall some storys about this. I recken he leveled a shotgun a few times.

[kitascars]

i live nearby mines now....and nowadys the guys that work at the face(where the guys who are riding the conveyor belt in would work) make 3-400.00 an hour.

Glad times have changed.....at least here.

p.s. yes there still are actual men who use picks and shovels at mines :)

[jeffchandler28]

my great grandfather name was Tom Hicks the story be told he took the blame for the killings at Evarts. Of course he was a coal miner they worked him day and night in those mines. but great grandfather tom was never at evarts when the killings happen he was out robbing the commissary for the people. now great grandfather brother was at evarts when the killings happen his name was Sam Hicks they say he had the machines gun.. any info about this can someone please message me

[jeffchandler28]

great video i will never forget my roots. my mother came from harlan she was born in molus, ky. my grandpa was a coal miner his name was Alonzo Wilson. i have read storys in a book call HillBilly Women by Kathy Kahn my mother and my grandma and mama are in the book title blue ridge mountain refugee..my grandma madien name is Hicks from in the story the hicks seemed famous back in the miner strike gun thug days...

[erkekler]

Raise your hand if you love bluegrass music!

[jizzyb123]

The dude in the truck at 2:48 scares me. Wasnt his name Basil or something?

[erkekler]

Basil Collins......what a pig.

[DipsterMiller]

i just watched this today on showtime its really good

[Wildteamster]

Good for those proud men and women to finally stand up for their rights! If the rich had their way, working people would be treated like dogs, nothing has changed in the last 100 years. They would have you living in a Company home with no water or power if they could get away with it! UNITED we demand, divided we beg! Long live Unions !!

[yamagoof]

Well I guess those poor people should make a CHOICE to start up their own company and uphold their principles that way, not bully people (the ONLY thing union THUGS know how to do)... I'm FED UP with unions, they are DESTROYING this nation and are a rapid spreading cancer that must be dealt with...

[AshleyFarley]

WOW! this used to be harlan?? daaaang.. that's crazy. harlan isn't like that at all now. lol.

[porkchop6521]

Harlan is nothing like this now its actually pretty peaceful and is a pretty nice place to live

[AnonymousBChurch]

The LORD will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof: for ye have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.

What mean ye that ye beat my people to pieces, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord GOD of hosts. Isaiah 3:14-15

[camazotzz]

eatin aint cheatin

[masonmcqueen]

I grew up in Middlesboro, but a lot of my family came from Harlan County. I would love to find this documentary. Does anyone know where I could find it??

[ikatierox]

my family still there and I'm looking for it to

[dixieken]

masonmcqueen,

You can find it almost anywhere nowadays. Criterion Collection rereleased it in 2006. It has alot of extras and is a beautiful transfer. I know your question is from 9 months ago, but I hope this helps you out. Search it on Ebay and Amazon. I found alot of copies on both. I even found that thay released a soundtrack for it finally, which I bought on Amazon last night, after watching the film for about the 100th time. Good luck, its worth the money to own.

[1969ChargerDaytona]

Man, im glad good old Harlan County isnt like this anymore. Theres hardly and poverty and stuff that there was back then.

[unitedcheerstar]

wow how far we have came...there is hardly any pverty now...and like i lived there for a long time but i live in the county next to it...kentucky isn't like this no more...

[msmoonlightdrive]

great documentary

[homergriswold]

I'm 35 years old. I can't beleave how far we came from this time to the present. It really wasn't that long ago.They couldn't get a bar of soap to wash with,they get shot at and no law enforcement would do anything. Try that today.

[pattywolford]

I'm watching this film as I write, but I can only take it in spurts...too intense! I grew up in WV coal mining area. How is Harlan today?

[Camkotsu]

Its nothing like the old Harlan,

[frostythecatman]

they went back to work or at least a percentage of them did, for less money that they were actually striking for in the frist place and the brave men crossing those picket lines got raises and bounes for doing so, most spent the extra on guns other then food for their familys or thats what my dad did with his anyway. **Harlan county born and raised**

[70goldtop]

Scab dork.

[kn4ma1958]

I lived in Harlan County when the strikes where going on and beleave me it was as bad as this clip.

[goldsmithstudent]

my dad told me storys about this. he was from hindman ky in knott co

[banjolisterine]

what's the name of that song, that plays in the beginning? real good.

[RedCeltic]

DARK AS A DUNGEON (Merle Travis)

[homerekker]

Time to move from Harlan, County. Move to Flagstaff!!!!!

[flockofdgulls]

This has quickly become my all time favorite film. Everyone needs to see this.

[anirishlifeforme]

I'm all set to see Harlan County at 4:30 today at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana. This trailer cemented it in my mind--now i gotta git some gosh darn poppin' corn.

[staceman32]

kewl

[capt777737]

I got this movie, and it's sad, and you get angry.

Right now we got 6 miners forever trapped in Utah underground. Rescue operations suspended indefinately because it isn't safe to send rescuers underground

Owners says it was earthquake, seismologists who are experts say no. The owners were doing retreat mining.

So the incident is their fault.

The owners need to pay with their lives. I'm Republican but pro union as 40% of us are

[trodbigdaddy]

can you plz let me know where to get a copy of the movie thanx

[capt777737]

Go to your local public library they should have it or can get it. Off of that one I got my own.

I also have the words to the song "The Mannington Mine Disaster" wrote by Hazel Dickens herself You can google those

[clarkiedizzile]

It is now on DVD part of the Criterion Collection. Check around I'm sure you can find it. Some of these people in the film are still alive today here in Harlan County.

[muguticutits]

that pretty cool ive never heard of it...mut im just 19 to i live in ol' laurel county

[DocuChick]

Harlan F'in County! BK rocks. Master of nonfiction.

[meirser]

This film is a must see for everyone. So powerful and provokes so many different emotions on different levels. Nothing cmpares to it.

[coweyes72]

The man those gov emplyees ( I wont call them officers) manhandled with billy clubs was my uncle. He was beat repeatedly for crossing picket lines to work, but the family had to be fed. Coal mines finally killed him. He was electricuted a few years later in brookside mine.

[macho999]

Funny thing is those officers are in unions too.

[capt777737]

I was in the guard business for 25 years myself, and I would never work a strike for a client, even for $1 an hour more in wages. Clients can go to hell.

Now if the striking union hired us in to work a strike gate, that I would do, and then for 8 hours, bullshit with the union members.

[wyncrtr1]

Great Video. My mothers people are from Harlan, Black Mountain, Verde, Red Bud, Brookside, and Evarts.

[hungry78]

Harlan bloody Harlan.  Don't mess with mountain folk.

[tennappie]

Nuclear? Heck no! No more Three Mile Islands!!!

Anyway, great Harlan County USA clip.

[terrencemalick9]

One of the greatest, if not the greatest, documentary ever made. Thanks for posting this.

[jegonus]

Capitalist pigs always squeeze the small people with no voice. Without labor, the corporations are nothing. Arise! Unite!

[RedDetroit]

This country needs a militant labor movement again.

[martylexky]

this was my home town before I moved I was 3 years old when this was going on

[t29174]

What do you call ten thousand union members on the bottom of the ocean........................a good start